I estimated that I added around 6500-7000 rings in my alterations. I put it on the scale to see how much the weight had increased and found that the helmet, coif, and hauberk now total 45 pounds. This is around a 8-10 pound increase over the original weight. Not unreasonable but I can feel the difference.

HOLY SMOKES!!!!! Your going to be dreaming about those rings for a week! LOL, talk about the obsessed!
Well, CONGRATULATIONS Patrick, I applaud you for your determination, I bet your fingers are about to fall off and you must be cross eyed, but hey, you got the job done!

I guess only another one of us "truly obsessed" would understand, and I do understand! Which is why I truly love this website, created for the medieval collector, though I am new and just discovered this about myself, I assure you, I belong here and I am here to stay! It is so great to meet all of you, no matter what walk of life anyone may come from, in this particular window of life we are all the same. So Patrick, in all seriousness I do congratulate you in getting the job done and I do understand. Isn't it just great!!!!!!!! You bet it is, I love this to no end!

I very much look forward to seeing the pictures of this labor of love, you should be very proud of yourself!
Let me know how many dreams you have about mail. LOL

Is this the Wholesalearmor one? Can't wait to see the finished product.

Forgive my ignorance, though, but what all did you do to it?

Best,

That's the one.

If you'll recall the first thing I did to it was dunk it in a bucket of muriatic acid to remove the zinc plating. The alterations were as follows: I closed up the kneckline and made it more biased forward. I added four 6" x 12" gores to the skirt, on each side, in front and back. I then split the skirt up the front and back and found that, while improved, the v-gap in the slits was a bit more exaggerated than I preferred. (I've always hated that about most modern hauberks I've seen as it destroys the look entirely) Consequently I added four smaller trapezoidal gores to the insides of the slits. This closed them up nicely.

In total I think I've added 3 to 4 inches to the length of the skirt. (212 rings in one row around the skirt!) At this particular stage I started using alternating rows of riveted and solid rings. This sped up the process immeasurably and if one is making a garment from scratch this is the way to go. Lastly I added a large diamond shaped gore in the back centered between my shoulder blades, this eliminated any binding I felt during movement. The result is a hauberk that hangs as it should, and one I can kneel, squat, bend over in etc. without any hinderance.

We need Picts ! it a wonder with all that rivetting that you had any time left to moderate the site or post anything.

I guess you had to learn to taylor the thing and that is more of a learning curve than learning to rivet a ring: You have to figure out where to add rings without leaving gaps or bunching things up or having things not line up 360 degrees later.

Only guessing here as I am clueless about doing this myself.

HMMMMMMMMM : How about now making riveted maille horse armour. You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!

I, on the other hand, when with the simple option, buying a set of lose skirts from GDFB.... And making someone else attatch them for me, in exchange for a coat of plates...

Congrats, Patric"this [fight] looks curious, almost like a game. See, they are looking around them before they fall, to find a dry spot to fall on, or they are falling on their shields. Can you see blood on their cloths and weapons? No. This must be trickery."
-Reidar Sendeman, from King Sverre's Saga, 1201

As the owner of the first Kelly Original hauberk I will wait patiently for the opportunity to add this new hauberk to my collection. Thereby saving myself countless hours of painstaking work. I much prefer it that way.

Just kidding, Patrick . Congratulations and I am also looking forward to some detailed pictures. I am very interested in seeing the particulars of your tailoring. Also, if you wouldn't mind, could you take a picture of one of the armpits - they are another of those problem areas where a picture is worth a thousand words.

As the owner of the first Kelly Original hauberk I will wait patiently for the opportunity to add this new hauberk to my collection. Thereby saving myself countless hours of painstaking work. I much prefer it that way.

I wouldn't hold your breath. This one is what I wanted that first one to be, so barring unforseen events I doubt if it's going anywhere.

It's bad enough to realize you screwed up two or three rows back when working with butted mail. With the riveted stuff you're already past the point of no return as soon as the hammer falls. The only thing to be done then is to get out the wire cutters.........

The best advice I can give anyone working with rivetted mail is to think very hard about doing something before you do it!

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